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2024-25 New York at Work Report

Now in its fifth year, the 2024-25 New York at Work report draws on ILR expertise, research-based data and policy analysis on a broad range of key issues affecting the state’s workers, unions, communities and employers. It is intended to serve as an informative, accessible and relevant resource for policymakers and the public.

2024-25 NY at Work cover
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Justice at Work: Belonging

See more justice at work and belonging

Toolkit Helps Job Seekers With Records Pursue Second Chance

Cornell Chronicle
CJEI's updated Criminal Record Online Toolkit consolidates relevant federal, state, and local laws and forms across jurisdictions in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
A blank job application form on a clipboard.
Toolkit Helps Job Seekers With Records Pursue Second Chance

New Website Helps Businesses Follow the Americans with Disabilities Act

Research-based website explains how small businesses can best follow the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and welcome customers and employees with disabilities
Workers in a neighborhood coffee shop
New Website Helps Businesses Follow the Americans with Disabilities Act

Report: Erie Co. Working Women Earn Less, And They Know It

Cornell Chronicle
Women working in Erie County simultaneously experience lower pay and more significant barriers to success relative to men, according to a new report released by the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab.
Gender wage gap
Report: Erie Co. Working Women Earn Less, And They Know It

New York State: Economy, Policy, and Practice

See more stories about our work in New York State

As a New York land-grant college, we have a state mandate to apply our work in service to our local communities, state and regional economies, and partners in governance. We create and share knowledge, build relationships, and inform strategies aimed at improving economic well-being for all New Yorkers.

Coupling our strong physical foundations in Buffalo, Ithaca, and New York City, our resources and infrastructure allow us to pursue local innovations that have global implications.

New Interactive Map Highlights How Federal Funding Impacts NY State

Cornell Chronicle
Russell Weaver, the co-lab’s director of research, introduced the “NYS Federal Impact Interactive Map,” to help New Yorkers track the impact of sweeping economic policy changes enacted since January by the Trump administration.
A screenshot from a new interactive map that highlights how federal funding cuts are impacting NY state.
New Interactive Map Highlights How Federal Funding Impacts NY State

Federal Cuts Cost New Yorkers Jobs and Critical Financial Resources

Dr. Rusty Weaver, Director of Research, Cornell ILR Buffalo office, will provide a live demonstration of the interactive map and several WNY community members will share local impact relative to the federal cuts, at an event on 10/28 at 10am at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY.
nys flag and federal building
Federal Cuts Cost New Yorkers Jobs and Critical Financial Resources

Unpaid Caregiving and Its Impact on New Yorkers' Paid Employment

The findings affirm that caregiving—both unpaid caregiving and access to paid care support—remains a pressing concern for the substantial number of New Yorkers who are providing care for children and/or adults.
A home healthcare worker takes a man's blood pressure.
Unpaid Caregiving and Its Impact on New Yorkers' Paid Employment

A driving principle behind our research, teaching, training, and practice is that everyone deserves fair and equal access to jobs, housing, healthcare, and other means for achieving economic security. Our work seeks solutions that remove inequitable barriers to economic opportunities, whether those barriers occur within an individual workplace or at the structural levels of our political and economic systems.

You can see a handful of our recent work below.

CJEI Explores Tech in Fair Chance Hiring at CUPA-HR National Conference

Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI) led a session at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR’s) 2025 Annual Conference in Aurora, CO.
Image of Jodi Anderson, Jacqueline Mouillesseaux, Esta Bigler and Christine Lovely
CJEI Explores Tech in Fair Chance Hiring at CUPA-HR National Conference

The Realities of Paid Caregiving in the United States

Dr. Madeline Sterling and Maya Levinson explain that aging in place depends on paid caregivers who provide essential medical and daily living support. They warn that worsening policies, low pay, and difficult working conditions are driving caregivers away, creating a crisis that could leave many without the care they need.
HHA and Patient
The Realities of Paid Caregiving in the United States

Warming to the Idea? Labor Governance and Extreme Heat in Apparel Production

This policy brief builds upon past GLI research and our recent report co-produced with the IFC and the ILO's Better Work program. It presents new findings on the impacts of extreme heat and the adaptation responses from employers, workers, their governments and buyers in the global apparel and footwear industry.
Cambodian workers are seen in a local footwear manufacturing plant, with containers of materials in multiple colors sitting in front of workers wearing bandanas and many wearing masks as well.
Warming to the Idea? Labor Governance and Extreme Heat in Apparel Production

Collective Representation and Worker Voice

See more stories about collective representation workers' voices

We were founded to study and improve the world of work. We have strong research roots in labor relations and negotiations, and our work with varying communities comes from our commitment to understanding collective representation, the perspectives of workers, and improving workers' lives.

Empowering Workers, Building Leaders

On October 9, 2025, thirty participants celebrated their graduation from the first Housekeeping Technician and Leadership Development Workshop Series, a collaborative training effort between Labor Leadership Initiatives at Cornell’s ILR School and the Worker Justice Project (WJP).
WJP Graduation. Cleaning technicians 2
Empowering Workers, Building Leaders

Global Labor Leadership Initiative (GLLI) 2025: Global labor leaders unite for stronger, more democratic unions!

Earlier this year, 19 union leaders from across Africa, Asia, and Europe gathered in South Africa through the ILR School and The Solidarity Center’s Global Labor Leadership Initiative (GLLI).
GLLI
Global Labor Leadership Initiative (GLLI) 2025: Global labor leaders unite for stronger, more democratic unions!

ILR Hosts 2025 UALE Northeast Summer School for Women+ in Unions and Worker Organizations

This summer, the reach of labor education in Ithaca expanded as more than 150 workers united as a network of leaders grounded in history and ready to drive meaningful change in their own communities.
Group shot of UALE Summer School participants
ILR Hosts 2025 UALE Northeast Summer School for Women+ in Unions and Worker Organizations

Leadership Development

We work with communities, organizations, departments and companies – all to help develop leaders who will make workplaces and employment itself better. Foundations in management and collective bargaining, and our 75 years in industry put us in a unique position to help develop leaders in business, labor and policy.

CAHRS

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies

CAHRS is the world's leading partnership between industry and academia, devoted to global human resource management. The CAHRS partnership connects leading companies to Cornell University, the ILR School, and leading faculty, students and intellectual leaders throughout the world.

several towers from Cornell's Ithaca campus
Visit CAHRS

Labor Leadership Training

We work with union leaders at national and state levels to develop training programs for aspiring and established leaders within the labor field.

Explore labor leadership programs

Senior Leader Programs

We bring together world-class faculty with business and industry leaders to design and deliver training systems that develop HR, business and management leaders. Learn from world-class faculty dedicated to HR research and driving organizational performance.

Man leaning reflected against city glass door
Find out more about our senior leadership training

NY Lawmakers and Labor Leaders Study British Columbia’s Clean Energy Transition

In August, the Climate Jobs Institute led New York lawmakers and labor leaders to British Columbia to study clean energy, labor-driven climate strategies, and sustainable infrastructure. Delegates met officials, toured multiple sites, and explored how global best practices can inform NY’s climate, jobs, and equity goals.
Educational Delegation Members
NY Lawmakers and Labor Leaders Study British Columbia’s Clean Energy Transition

New Report Highlights 20+ Years of ULI’s Impact on New York’s Labor Leadership

A revealing evaluation shows how the Union Leadership Institute has empowered hundreds of leaders to strengthen the labor movement and advance equity across New York State.
ULI Cohort 2024-2025
New Report Highlights 20+ Years of ULI’s Impact on New York’s Labor Leadership

Worker Institute Researcher Elected to NYAAPOR Council

Michael Lenmark, Survey Statistician at the Worker Institute, has been elected as the Associate Secretary Treasurer for the American Association for Public Opinion Research, New York.
Michael Lenmark
Worker Institute Researcher Elected to NYAAPOR Council

ILR in the News

Our work from the media

See more ILR news coverage

Cayuga Medical nurses announce union drive

The Ithaca Voice
Cathy Creighton, director of the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab and a former attorney at the National Labor Relations Board, explains how the lack of a quorum at the board could hinder union organizing efforts.
Cayuga Medical nurses announce union drive

Solving the Home Care Quandary

The New York Times
“It’s a crisis,” said Madeline Sterling, a primary care doctor at Weill Cornell Medicine and director of the Initiative on Home Care Work, housed in ILR’s Center for Applied Research on Work, about home care for the elderly. She also discusses recent clinical trials aimed at improving care.
Solving the Home Care Quandary

Starbucks workers' union expands strike to more stores on Black Friday

Reuters
“The law allows management to hire replacements in this kind of strike, so the workers just don't have a lot of leverage,” said Harry Katz, ILR School professor and director of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, analyzing the leverage held by the currently striking Starbucks workers.
Starbucks workers' union expands strike to more stores on Black Friday